Shennon Biotechnologies Raises $12M, Names Cyril Konto CEO and Unveils Three T-Cell Engager Programs
核心洞察
Shennon Biotechnologies (搜索) raised $12 million in new financing, bringing total capital raised to $25 million since its founding in 2021.
The company appointed industry veteran Cyril Konto, M.D., as CEO, with founder Li Sun, Ph.D., moving to President and Chief Technology Officer.
ShennonBio disclosed three T-cell engager programs: SBT-121 (搜索) for small cell lung cancer (搜索), SBT-201 for ovarian cancer (搜索) and SBT-425 (搜索) for hepatocellular carcinoma (搜索).
Shennon Biotechnologies (搜索) has raised $12 million in new financing and appointed biotechnology industry veteran Cyril Konto, M.D., as Chief Executive Officer, while disclosing its first three oncology programs — all T-cell engager (TCE) candidates in solid tumors. The round brings the San Francisco-based company's total capital raised to $25 million.
The financing was backed by Future Ventures (搜索), NextGen Venture Partners (搜索), Samos Investments (搜索), Atypical Ventures (搜索) and Saras Capital (搜索), with continued participation from existing investors DCVC (搜索), Foundation Capital (搜索) and AV8 Ventures (搜索). Proceeds will support continued development of ShennonBio's integrated technology platform and advancement of its emerging oncology pipeline.
Leadership Transition Signals Development-Stage Shift
Konto succeeds founder Li Sun, Ph.D., who transitions from CEO to President and Chief Technology Officer and will continue to lead the company's scientific strategy, technology development and pipeline innovation. The leadership change marks ShennonBio's transition from building its discovery platform toward development-stage execution as its initial therapeutic programs move closer to the clinic.
Konto brings more than 20 years of experience spanning oncology drug development, biotechnology company building and strategic transactions. Most recently he served as President and CEO of Ichnos Glenmark Innovation (搜索), where he led a strategic and operational transformation, focused the portfolio around oncology and expanded its multispecific therapeutics franchise. During his tenure, the company completed three external partnerships, including an agreement with AbbVie involving a Phase 1 trispecific T-cell engager that included $700 million in upfront payments and as much as $1.9 billion in total potential value plus royalties. Konto previously held senior oncology development leadership positions at Allogene Therapeutics, Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb (搜索).
"What attracted me to the Company is the opportunity to translate those capabilities into a new generation of precision immunotherapies," Konto said. "I look forward to working closely with Li and the team to advance our pipeline toward the clinic, establish strategic partnerships and build ShennonBio for its next stage of growth."
Three T-Cell Engager Programs in Solid Tumors
ShennonBio's newly disclosed pipeline comprises three programs intended to demonstrate its strategy of combining established T-cell engager biology with proprietary discovery, screening and computational technologies to identify differentiated opportunities in solid tumors.
SBT-121 (搜索) is a dual-targeting trispecific antibody-based T-cell engager being developed for small cell lung cancer (搜索). SBT-201 is an antibody-based T-cell engager in development for ovarian cancer (搜索). SBT-425 (搜索) is a TCR-based T-cell engager being developed for hepatocellular carcinoma (搜索).
The platform is designed to support both antibody- and TCR-based T-cell engagers. According to the company, antibody-based T-cell engagers can target antigens expressed on the surface of tumor cells, while TCR-based T-cell engagers are designed to potentially recognize intracellular cancer antigens presented by HLA (搜索). ShennonBio believes using both approaches can significantly expand the range of cancer targets addressable through T-cell engager therapies.
An Integrated Discovery Engine Built on Proprietary Human Data
Founded in 2021, ShennonBio has built a technology engine spanning target discovery, ultra-high-throughput functional screening, computational binder prediction and optimization, and AI-enabled safety assessment. The engine comprises four core proprietary platforms.
PINTRA uses proprietary human tumor datasets and computational methods to identify differentiated surface and intracellular therapeutic targets. TCELERATOR is an ultra-high-throughput functional screening platform capable of evaluating more than 10 million single-cell interactions simultaneously and screening millions of therapeutic candidates. AFFINIS is a computational platform designed to predict, design and optimize antibody binders and T-cell receptors. SERIS is an AI-enabled safety platform intended to identify potential off-target cross-reactivity earlier in the therapeutic development process.
Together, the technologies are designed to connect target identification, functional screening, therapeutic optimization and safety assessment within a single discovery and development system. The company has assembled proprietary human data encompassing more than 10,000 tumor samples, more than 11 million single cells and a substantial collection of T-cell receptor (搜索) sequences, and continues expanding those datasets through relationships involving more than 15 institutions and multiple cancer types and other diseases. ShennonBio has also established approximately 6,000 square feet of laboratory space in San Francisco near UCSF Mission Bay.
"ShennonBio was founded to address fundamental challenges that have limited the development of precision immunotherapies, from identifying differentiated targets and highly functional therapeutic binders to predicting potential safety risks before candidates reach the clinic," said Li Sun, Ph.D., Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer. "With $25 million raised to date, and Cyril joining as CEO, we are entering an important new stage for ShennonBio as we advance our first TCE programs toward the clinic."
Path Toward the Clinic and Partnerships
Over the next two years, ShennonBio plans to advance a development candidate toward an Investigational New Drug filing and Phase 1 clinical development. The company also intends to pursue licensing opportunities for selected therapeutic programs and to explore partnerships around its platform capabilities, including binder prediction and generation, clinical toxicity prediction and access to its proprietary datasets.